Electrical connectors known as modular phone receptacles or jacks have been available for many years. Although connectors of this type were originally designed for use in telephone systems, they have found wide acceptance in a variety of other contexts. For example, modular jacks referred to as RJ connectors, which may be incorporated into single port or multi-port arrangements, are now commonly used as input/output (I/O) interface connectors for enabling computers to communicate with each other and with a variety of peripheral equipment, and in particular as connectors between a local area network (LAN) and an appropriately configured interface card.
In order to receive a corresponding modular plug, the conventional modular jack or RJ connector is generally made up of a socket housing which includes a plug-receiving opening, opposed top and bottom surfaces joined by opposed side surfaces extending from the opening to a back surface, and a plurality of stamped, metallic elongated contacts mounted in the housing for engaging contacts of the corresponding plug. Each contact in this type of connector includes a contact mating portion at one end extending diagonally into the socket, a vertically extending lead portion at the other end, and a horizontally extending intermediate portion between the contact mating portion and the lead portion. Generally, the lead portions of the contacts are inserted directly into openings in the interface card and soldered in place.
In order to reduce the cost and space requirements, these modular jacks have been integrated in a single housing in a juxtaposed manner for mounting onto a PC board as shown in FIG. 1. Due to the high data transmission speed of many computers today, such multi-port modular jacks are also provided with shielding around the external surface of the integral housing. It is also an advantage to have a large number of modular jacks mounted to the edge of a same printed circuit board, however increasing the number of parts would lengthen the connector assembly in the prior art solution shown in FIG. 1, as the modular jacks are arranged in a single row. The connector assembly length however is limited by the external size of the computer and the length of the printed circuit board to which it is mounted. It would therefore be desirable to increase the number of ports without increasing the length of the connector. In doing so, one should ensure that the resilient latches of the modular plugs that connect with the jacks are easily accessible in order to easily release the plug from the jack. Certain data transmission standards such as 10 Base T, require connector assemblies to function reliably for very high data transmission speeds and also high voltages. High data transmission speeds e.g. 100 Mhz require effective shielding, and high voltages mean that the signal contacts should be sufficiently spaced from the grounding circuits in order to avoid flashover.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,946 to Briones, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a shielded multi-port connector having a row of ports capable of receiving RJ-type connector plugs. The connector disclosed in this patent uses a single molded housing having multiple jack openings and a one-piece external shield in order to increase port density without significantly increasing assembly costs.
Another solution to increase port density, with minimal increase in the footprint of the assembly, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,099,349 and 6,244,896, both to Boutros, which are incorporated herein by reference. These patents discloses a connector arrangement made up of two discrete rows multi-port connectors, each with an external shield, that are vertically stacked. The first connector is a conventional single row multi-port connector (FIG. 1); and the second connector is a single row multi-port connector with a vertical extension that houses a single row of contact tails that fits behind the first multi-port connector when the second connector sits on top of the first connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,612 to Goodall et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a multi-port connector having two rows of jacks that are assembled to a common integral housing and disposed in back-to-back mirror image symmetry. Shielding is provided around the connector assembly and between the two rows.
The prior art multi-port connectors contain walls dividing the individual jack openings, effectively providing one opening to one port configuration. These walls take up valuable space. Despite of the advances of the prior art, there remains a need to further increase the port density of a multi-port connector assembly without increasing the length or footprint of the assembly.